The Life and Times of Charley MacDervish
by jjslll54
Summary: A mythical creature tries to find his purpose in life.


This story has nothing to do with Harry Potter or any other fan fiction story. It is an original short story I wrote for my creative writing class. I'm posting it here to get readers opinion of the story. The story is about a magical creature trying to find his purpose in life.

The Life and Times of Charley MacDervish

Part One: Awareness

Hello dear reader, my name is Charley MacDervish and this is the story of my life. Charley wasn't always my name; as a matter of fact, when I came into being I had no name. My first awareness was that it was very dark, I could hear strange noises all around me and there was a peculiar odor in the air. It felt like I was floating above a surface I could not see, so I let myself drift slowly around the area where I came into being, trying for any sign of my whereabouts and hopefully, a possible clue as to what kind of being I was. A sudden gust of wind swirled around me, consequently turning my gaze towards the right where I could see a soft glow off in the distance.

"I sure could use some of that light," I said to myself.

As soon as I uttered the word "light" I could feel something come to life within me, a pleasant warm feeling that filled me from the inside to the surface of my body. I looked down and could see that I was putting off a soft glow; not unlike the glow I had seen earlier. Reveling in this new feeling I decided to experiment a bit to see what I could accomplish with the warmth within me. Discovering I had control over the amount of light emitted by my body I adjusted the output until I could see my surroundings.

"That's better," I said to myself.

While experimenting I found I could also control the direction of my flight, so I looked around to see if I could figure out where I was and what I was. Looking down at my body again I discovered I didn't have one; not a solid one at any rate. After giving my body a once over, I glanced up and perceived the soft glow I had seen earlier was getting brighter as I watched. It became apparent as the glow got closer to me that there was more than one entity within the glow. As it slowed its approach the glow broke apart into several balls of light. I studied them for a few minutes with the idea of getting a better understanding of what I was. The others had bodies not unlike jelly fish in the ocean, with a fibrous membrane that was transparent and gave off different colors of light. I admit I haven't a clue what an ocean is, but this was told to me later in life by my friends, whom found out through their other friends and so on.

Between the glow from the others and myself I had a pretty good view of our surroundings, allowing me to see that all of us were in a grassy meadow with tall trees enclosing the meadow around us. Above the trees I could see dark silhouettes blocking some of the night sky. That of course brought my attention to the multitudes of bright lights above me. I wondered what made the lights up there as there were so many of them and they seemed to be winking at me. I tried talking to them but got no answer to my queries. Bringing my attention back to my immediate surroundings, I saw several creatures taking advantage of our light to forage in the meadow.

"Hello, do you know where or what we are?" I asked, directing my query to the other glowing lights and the creatures as they browsed.

I heard a twittering sound from the lights as if they were laughing at my naiveté for asking such a question in the first place. They just bobbed around merrily as if they hadn't a care in world. From the ground dwellers; nothing. I floated along for a few hours taking in my surroundings, trying to figure out what my purpose was. While I was contemplating the age old question about the meaning of life and my purpose in it I noticed the sky was getting lighter as time passed. The dark silhouettes I had been observing resolved themselves into mountain tops and the lights in the sky were overcome by a blue wash over the whole top of the meadow. My emissions, along with that of my fellows were dimmed somewhat by the brightness of this new light. I wondered what could be the source for the new light as it was everywhere. The meadow was illuminated in a foggy glaze that that thinned out as time passed and then the most amazing thing happened. Just above the mountain tops in the distance a bright yellow/white ball started to move up as if it had been hiding behind the mountains all this time and was just now showing itself. I watched as it climbed higher and higher until it was right above me. The ball was so bright I could barely see my own luminance, let alone that of the others, but could now make out everything else in my surroundings. As I was taking in the wondrous sight of my surroundings, I could finally account for the peculiar odor when I came into being; I could see and smell the flowers, along with the tall grass stalks which were drying quickly from the morning dew. The meadow has a brook that runs through the center making a bubbling sound as the water travels over the rocks. Moving closer to the brook I could see small things wiggling around in the water. I was so amazed by all the wondrous new sights, sounds and odors in my meadow that I was overflowing with energy as I flew around rejoicing in the miracle that is life in my meadow.

ooOOoo

Part Two: Discovery

After an indeterminate number of light and dark cycles floating around in my meadow there came a particularly dark period. Even the lights in the sky appeared to have darkened and it was totally silent; not even the wind was blowing. I heard twittering noises from the others of my kind and when I looked in their direction they were bobbing and weaving as if they were getting ready to go somewhere. We had never left the meadow before, so I followed along to see what was going on and after traveling for a bit I could see a glow off in the distance that my comrades seemed to be drawn to. A new sound behind me drew my attention. Turning, I saw a group of strange looking creatures that I had never seen before following us. The creatures stood on two legs with two more protruding just below the head and seemed to be covered not with fur like other creatures, but with some white material that moved in the wind of their passing. I turned back towards the glow ahead and soon caught up with the rest. When I arrived after the others I saw the glow was being generated by a blueish white ball in a small clearing with Sprites of all kinds dancing around it merrily singing. It came to me that this was no ordinary ball of light as there was a feeling of charged particles in the air like some new form of energy. I felt more alive than ever before and flew with my fellows around this new source of light soaking up the energy, enjoying every second. I almost missed what happened next when the new creatures made a noise.

"What an honor," one of the strange creatures whispered in awe.

"Yes," another agreed, "to witness a gathering of fairies celebrating the winter solstice is a beautiful sight indeed."

"Quiet you two," the leader of the group whispered while watching the dancers, "Oh, we've been spotted. Best behavior everyone."

Several of the Sprites flew over to the strange creatures and latched onto their upper appendages, drawing them into the light where they stood respectfully with their heads bowed.

The queen of the fairies flew up and hovered in front of the creature that seemed to be in charge of the group.

"Humans, how came you to our gathering?" the fairy queen asked.

Esmerelda, the leader of the group of humans gave the fairy queen a deep curtsy.

"We followed the lights of the Will 'o' Wisps to your fine gathering in hopes to find you," she said, "We understand the meaning of the winter solstice and wish to celebrate with you."

I watched as the fairy queen looked into the eyes of the human called Esmerelda. I, along with the others there, could sense the truth in the human's words and with a nod and a gesture from the queen the dance resumed. The humans divested themselves of their robes and joined in the celebration by dancing and singing with the fairies. That is how I found out I was called a Will 'o' Wisp by the strange creatures whom were called humans.

ooOOoo

Part Three: Transition

As dawn broke, the celebration came to an end, signifying the start of a new season. The dancers all returned to their various realms as a new wind started to blow. I was caught up in this new wind and felt helpless as I was blown towards my meadow increasing altitude as I was blown along. I was so high I could see the whole of my meadow, along with the tree tops and mountains on both sides of my meadow. I tried to fly down to the only place I had even known until now, but the wind was too strong and blew me past my meadow and down through the space between the mountains. As I was blown by the wind higher and higher I could see the mountains on either side were getting closer together. The closer I got to where the mountains were closest to each other the faster I flew along. Before long, all I could see was rock walls on both sides of me rushing by very quickly. I tried my best to stay away from those walls as I didn't know what would happen to me if I hit one of them. After what seemed like forever the walls just dropped away and I was blown into a very large open area that had the strangest looking trees I had ever seen. They didn't even remotely look like the trees that surrounded my meadow. I found I had control over my flying abilities again, so I flew down for a closer look at one of them. It stood about a third as high as my meadow trees and only had three arms with what looked like tiny branches growing out of them with sharp points on the end of each branch. I looked around at my surroundings further and couldn't find any of the things I was used to in my meadow. No grass for the forest creatures to graze on, no flowers for the flying creatures to alight on. The brook seemed to have gone away during my flight between the walls of rock. I saw how flat and open the land was around me and as I turned I saw the bright yellow/white ball as it cleared the edge of the land. It started as a slim arc at the edge of the flat area and increased in size and brightness as it moved.

"So this is where you hide during the dark periods," I speculated.

ooOOoo

Part Four: Friendship

As I was looking around further I heard a noise below me and looked down. I saw a strange creature stick its head out from under a rock. I could see it flicking an appendage from its front and after several flicks emerged from under the rock into the open. The creature was long and slender and had strange round balls on its other end. The creature flicked its appendage again, moving its front end side to side, finally settling in the middle. The front part of this creature raised itself up from the ground and its small beady eyes seemed to lock onto my person.

"Never sssseen you before," it hissed, "new around here?"

"Yes," I answered, "Just blew in this morning."

"Ah," it hissed, "another victim of the Ssssanta Ana windssss."

"If you say so," I responded.

"My name is Ralf," the creature hissed, "What'ssss yourssss?"

"What's a name?" I asked.

"A name issss what your parentssss give you so they can tell the difference between you and your brotherssss and ssssisterssss."

"I'm not sure what a parent is, but I don't think I have one," I said.

"No Parentssss? Everyone hassss a name," Ralf hissed, "We must conssssult with Oliver to ssssee if you have one. He'ssss an owl you know. Follow me."

Ralf moved in a serpentine manner towards one of the new trees I had taken notice of as I studied my surroundings. I followed and as we got closer I could see a bird sitting on top of the tree. I knew what a bird was as there were a lot of them in my meadow.

"Greetingssss oh great Oliver," Ralf hissed as they approached.

"Salutations my friend," Oliver hooted genially," What wisdom can I bestow upon you this fine morning?"

"My new friend hassssn't a name," Ralf hissed," I thought you might know if he hassss one."

"Of course he has a name," Oliver hooted in indignation as he stared at me as if he were taking my measure.

"Yes," Oliver hooted in deep contemplation, "Yes, your name is Charley. Yes, most definitely, you look like a Charley."

"What's a Charley?" I asked.

"It's not a what," Oliver hooted with authority, "Charley is your name."

Ralf and Oliver looked on as I bobbed there thinking about what I was told. The more I thought, the more excited I became. My bobbing up and down became more pronounced and I flew high, circling the tree where Oliver sat with my internal light getting brighter and brighter.

"I have a name," I shouted with joy as I flew, "My name is Charley."

My shouting attracted the attention of others in the area and soon there was a crowd around Oliver's tree. As I calmed down I looked back to the tree and saw there were some new creatures gathered by the tree. They were staring at me in awe with their eyes wide and mouths open. I flew down to the tree where Oliver was perched and could hear all of the creatures whispering to each other.

"St. Elmo's Fire," they whispered amongst themselves, "We are in the presence of greatness."

"Hello," I said as they stared at me, "Have I done something wrong? What's a St. Elmo's Fire? I thought I was a Will 'O' Wisp."

"You have done nothing wrong," Oliver hooted softly, "We haven't seen one such as you around these parts before. Until now your kind were considered a legend. To see a living legend is awe inspiring to us lowly creatures."

"I don't see you as lowly creatures," I said to Oliver, "I have come to understand from observing all of the creatures in my meadow that all of us were put here for a purpose by a higher power. I thought I knew what my purpose was when I participated in the winter solstice celebration not far from my meadow. Now I am not so sure what my purpose is after being brought here by the winds."

"Perhaps you were sent for a reason you have yet to discover," Oliver hooted.

"You are probably right," I replied, "I will have to discover for myself the reason I was brought here to your…..What is this place called?"

"I have heard the humans who live here call it the Sonoran Desert," Oliver hooted, "I have traveled all over the desert area in my quest for knowledge."

"That sounds like a noble purpose," I said to Oliver, "I did the same for my meadow; though it was a bit smaller than your desert."

Oliver fluffed his feathers out in pride at my praise of his knowledge. He told me that the humans had a legend called "St. Elmo's Fire" that would manifest itself as a ball of light to lead a person stranded in the desert to safety. I didn't know if that was my new purpose or not, but I was blown here by the great wind known as Santa Ana. I decided then and there I would endeavor to make as many friends as I could by starting with the creatures gathered around Oliver's tree.

"Why don't you introduce me to your friends Oliver," I suggested as I flew down and alighted next to him.

Charley again puffed himself up as if it was a great honor to do something for me. Using his right wing, he pointed to each of the others, introducing them.

"You already know Ralf the rattle snake," Oliver started out with Ralf giving a shake of his tail to demonstrate his rattle.

"Next, we have a distant cousin of Ralf's who goes by Harvey. The locals call him a Gila Monster. Don't know where the monster part comes from as he is one of the nicest lizards I know."

"How goesss it sssenor?" Harvey hissed.

I flashed my light at him, since I didn't have appendages, to acknowledge his greeting.

"My other feathery friend, that can't seem to stand still, is named Rocky the road runner." Oliver hooted, "He's always in a hurry."

"Gladtomeetya," Rocky chirped, "Gottagonow, ."

"He is always on the move," Oliver hooted with a chuckle, "That's the longest I've seen him stay in one place since I met him."

I bobbed up and down, flashing my light in agreement about Rocky's enthusiasm; definitely something I could relate to.

"Last but not least in our group is Jackie the Jackrabbit," Oliver hooted giving her a slight bow, "She's sort of the mother figure for the group. Considering the size of her brood, she is very much qualified for the position."

"Nice to meet you," I said to her.

She squeaked a reply and bowed her head towards me.

"Oh," Oliver hooted," there is one more member of our group and that would be Terrance the tumbleweed. You might see him out and about as he seems to be at the mercy of the wind. Good source for news as he has been around the desert for a good many years."

"Thank you Oliver," I said as I flew up to take in the whole group.

"I don't know if I am this St. Elmo's Fire or not since its purpose is different from what I was led to believe my purpose was from others of my kind. However, I will endeavor to learn all there is to know about this place and will gladly help anyone in need."

The others cheered as I rose slowly up to a height to take in my surroundings, trying to figure out where to start.

ooOOoo

Part Five: Education

And this is how I came to be known as Charley and first met all of my new friends. I learned the light and dark cycles were called day and night respectively and that the bright ball I saw at night was called the moon by the humans. I observed how it would change over time from a small sliver to a large round ball that lit up the desert at night. On these nights I could see very well, so I didn't need my internal glow to see with. Using Oliver's tree, which I learned was called a Saguaro Cactus as an anchor for my explorations; I soared out in a circular pattern to scout out the local area of the desert. I met Terrance on the third day as he went tumbling by as he was blown with the wind. We exchanged greetings and I flew alongside him for a bit to converse. He was a pleasant enough chap, but he was constantly on the move. He promised to let me know if he spotted anyone in trouble.

As I explored the desert one night I saw a glow off in the distance and started towards it in hope the glow was caused by more of my kind. When I arrived at the glow I was both disappointed and fascinated by what I found. I was disappointed the glow was not from my own people, but fascinated by what I found. I decreased my own glow so as not to be discovered by those that I knew now were called humans. There seemed to be a gathering of them as there was several box like somethings that had lights on the front and back. There was a very large box surrounded by lights that had sections I could see to the inside of. Through these apparent openings there were humans of all shapes and sizes sitting at what looked like flat shelfs to me with their upper appendages moving back and forth from the flat shelf and their head. Curious, I moved closer; maybe this was a new ritual I could observe and learn from. As I got close to the opening I could see what the humans were doing. This was the first time I had gotten close enough to humans the truly see what they looked like. I was too caught up in the winter solstice to observe them the last time I had seen humans up close. I could see the upper appendages I had observed before at the solstice had smaller appendages attached and the humans were using these to pick up something to put in their mouths. It looked like a feeding ritual. I had seen animals feed before, but they just pulled their food from the ground with their teeth directly into their mouths. This was different; the humans were using something in their small appendages to put the food in their mouths. I had a need to look closer, so I drifted through the wall of the box and hovered inside. I slowly moved around inside the box, observing everything. As I was hovering inside the box, the humans I was observing were slowly quieting down while looking around for something they couldn't see. Even though I had kept my glow suppressed, I couldn't keep my magical energy suppressed as I used that to stay aloft. I decided to let the humans see that I meant no harm to them, so I slowly brought up my illumination to a soft glow. The humans all stared at me as I floated along.

"St. Elmo's Fire," I heard one of the locals whisper in awe while the others looked on.

I felt I had the response I was looking for, so I drifted through the wall and flew back into the desert, allowing my glow to intensify as I flew. From further observation of the humans I found out that the place with the big box and all the smaller ones was called a truck stop, whatever a truck is. There was a long black ribbon that ran past this truck stop as far as the eye could see in two directions that they called a road. It thoroughly amazed me at what these humans could do.

ooOOoo

Part Six: Living

After learning as much as I could about these humans I drifted back into the main desert area where I now lived. As time passed I started to see small swirling columns of dust and sand form and move across my section of the desert. They seemed to increase in height and become more opaque as more dust and sand were pulled into the funnel. My curiosity getting the better of me, I flew over to a particularly large one and got sucked inside the funnel where I was spun around and around very fast. I found I was having the time of my life with the spinning and shouted out with glee while bringing my illumination up to full power. I flew up and down within the funnel as I spun, finally shooting out the top of the funnel. My shouting had attracted a couple of my friends who watched me as I went from funnel to funnel having the time of my life. I saw Ralf and Harvey watching me and flew down to them ranting about how much fun I was having.

"I'm ssssure you are having a lot of fun," Ralf hissed in a deadpan, "Unfortunately, you are the only one of ussss that can do that."

"Ssssi," Harvey hissed, "You have no body ssssenior."

"I do have a body," I said, "it's just very small."

"Don't worry," Ralf hissed, "We will rejoice with you while you have your fun."

"Ssssi," Harvey hissed in agreement, "It givsss ussss joy to sssee you having a good time."

"You are such good friends to have around," I said as I flew around the pair.

The two appreciated my praise and over the next several day and night cycles it came to be known to the desert animals that I enjoyed going around and lighting up the spinning vortexes with my internal illumination. The animals were greatly entertained by my happy pastime as I had the ability to change the color of my illumination. I was even spotted by a couple of human hikers whom I am told took their story back to the truck stop, where they were believed because of what I had done that night in the diner.

ooOOoo

Part Seven: Purpose

In the fullness of time word had gotten around to the humans who came out to see me playing in the whirling vortexes, clapping their hands at the light show I would put on for them. I thought for sure I had found my purpose for being brought to this section of the desert. But it turned out I was wrong. One very dark night we had one of our rare thunder storms which caused what the humans called a flash flood down one of the ravines in my part of the desert. The animals alerted me of a group of humans that were stranded down the ravine as the waters had taken their whole camp ground with them. I flew to where the animals said the humans were and I could see a trail up the side of the ravine that was out of sight of the humans. I flew down to the group and brought my illumination up slowly so as not to startle them. After I had their attention I started bobbing and weaving a pattern flying away from them and then back again. They got the message and gathered up what they had with them and slowly followed me as I illuminated the path for them. I led them up the side of the ravine and out into the open desert. From the top of the ravine the lights of the truck stop could be seen off in the distance. I stayed with the humans for the whole trek to the truck stop lighting their way. When we finally arrived there were a lot of humans gathered together with flashing lights on their boxes and funny round bowls on the tops of some of the boxes.

"Look there," I heard one of the humans in the gathering.

All of the humans looked our way and watched as my light topped the rise of the road embankment. When the first of the humans I was leading topped the embankment the group in front of the truck stop rushed across the road to help the travelers I was leading. I watched as the whole group was taken into the diner and cared for by their kind. I overheard one of the humans talking to another. The pair had the look of old age and wisdom about them. They were both dark skinned as if they had spent their whole life in the sun.

"I saw that light in the desert bobbing and spinning inside the thermal vortices as if it were an upside down whirling dancing dervish." One said to the other.

"No my friend," the other said as he placed a hand on the other's shoulder, "That was St. Elmo's Fire. Legend has it that if you are in great need, as those trapped campers were, and if even one of them believes, St. Elmo will send his fire to guide them to safety. I for one am grateful for its presence and I'm sure those campers are too."

A few days later I flew by the truck stop and saw what I was told is a mural. It was a depiction of me lighting up the inside of a dust devil with the words Whirling Dervish across the top. That is how I became known as Charley MacDervish to the locals. The mac I stuck in myself because it sounded good and Dervish came from the mural. But the most important thing to me is I now knew why I was sent here. The most precious thing I had figured out was that I felt really alive and that all life, no matter how big or small, is sacred and must be protected. My true purpose is to protect all life as best I can in my little area of the desert. If you ever find yourself in my little section of the Sonoran Desert and are in need of my services call out to Charley MacDervish and I will come.

ooOOoo

16


End file.
